On April 23, 2016, singer Beyoncé released her iconic sixth studio album Lemonade. This album was also marked as her second visual album following her fifth self-titled album Beyoncé in 2013.
On February 6, 2016, Beyoncé released a song called "Formation" along with the music video on YouTube.
Two months later on April 17th, Beyoncé teased her fans with a video titled Lemonade on YouTube.
The description for Lemonade says that it's a "world premiere event" that is set to be released on April 23rd on HBO. It turned out that Lemonade on HBO was actually a one hour film for the singer's sixth studio album of the same name when she surprise released it immediately after it ended.
The film features 12 visual of the some of the songs on the album along with cameos from people like Serena Williams, Zendaya, Chloe x Halle, husband Jay-Z, daughter Blue Ivy and others.
After being released on streaming services like Tidal created by husband Jay-Z and ITunes, Lemonade went straight to number one the Billboard 200 making Beyoncé the first woman to have six number one albums. The album also explores with genres like reggae, rock, gospel, country, blues, pop, funk, electronic and trap music. Beyoncé create a Black movement and culture from the use if poetry and the powerful yet breathtaking visuals that she had blessed us with. I never listened to Lemonade nor have I watched the film, but when I do, I promise that I will do a review on it once I have purchased it. Thank you, Beyoncé for making this album and showing the world that you support the Black movement from adding the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner in "Forward" to breaking down this woman's remarkable journey into eleven chapters. Keep making more music like this and don't you ever stop.
Souled Out is the debut album by American singer Jhene Aiko. It was released on September 9, 2014. The album is primarily alternative R&B, but it explores with different genres like neo soul, hip hop, psychedelic music, and electronica. Souled Out is a concept album that tells the story of a woman's heartbreak before she becomes enlightened.
Limbo Limbo Limbo serves as the opening song for the album. It paints a picture about a girl who had been hurt so much that it just became normal to her and then she escape from the reality and into this fantasy world. Jhene sings on the beginning with, "She was born in limbo/ With the need to be as simple/ As her makers and the made up things she dreamed/ Falling from high buildings ' til she/ Was numb to the feeling really/ She would never be quite what she seemed/ She was just as hollow as the/ Earth opened up, swallowing her/ Off the grid and into paradise, her whole life", and then continues on to the hook with, "On a ride/ Her whole life is on a ride/ On a ride/ Life is on a ride".
Click on the link to listen to "W.A.Y.S" on YouTube
W.A.Y.S is the second song on Souled Out. The song is an acronym for "Why Aren't You Smiling?" as the singer pays tribute to her deceased brother Miyagi who died of cancer on July 19, 2012.
It appears as if Miyagi is visiting Jhene in her dreams as an angel as Aiko says, "At forty-four minutes to four/ An angel walked up to my door/ Opened the windows to my soul/ Told me he thinks that I should know/ There's no slowing down/ As the globe spins 'round and 'round", and then he begins to encourage her with these words on the track to which Aiko responds, "You better keep going, better keep going/ Better keep going, you better keep going/ Better keep going, you better keep going/ You better keep going, you better keep going/ You better keep going".
Click here to listen to "To Love & Die" on YouTube
To Love & Die finds Aiko playing the role of the prisoner of love and war with a little assistance from James Fauntleroy from the music group Cocaine 80s. She begins with, "Suited and booted, I've been hit by Cupid/ I'm being recruited/ I'm ready for war/ I'm ready for more/ Hold your position/ Load up ammunition/ I won't fail this mission/ Cause, baby, I'm yours/ Cause where I'm from/ We live for the love, die by the love/ We live for the love, die for the love". This song also contains an interpolation of 50 Cent's classic song "Many Men (Wish Death).
Click on the link to watch "Spotless Mind" video on YouTube
Spotless Mind is described as a "smooth" track that has an "island vibe" when you listen to it. Aiko is addressing her ex-boyfriend after their breakup while also wandering in a reverie singing, "Change is inevitable/ Why hold on to what you have to let go of?/ Like, did I really break your heart?/ Was it all my fault?/ If you don't knock it off/ You know like I know where this was heading/ I'm wanderer/ I'm wanderer, baby/ I'm wanderer/ I'm wanderer".
Click on this link to listen to "It's Cool" on YouTube
It's Cool is an R&B song with bluesy riffs and instrumentals. It about the singer falling in love with a man who only wanted her for physical interest. She sings, "My escape from everything/ Please say you'll be my nothing/ And I will give you everything/ Man, you are really something else/ You caught at an awful time/ See, I just lost my smile/ And that is what you helped me find/ Hadn't seen it in a while", and then admits on the hook that she doesn't mind their relationship being a casual thing, but it doesn't have to be that way saying, "But it's cool/ We ain't gotta be nothing/ It's true/ I'd actually prefer it, yeah/ It's on you, it's on you, it's on you/ It's on you, it's on you, it's on you/ It's on you, it's on you, it's on you/ It's on you, cause I'm cool".
Lyin King is talking about the same guy that Aiko mentioned on the previous track "It's Cool". When she sings, "Okay, so you just/ Go around breaking hearts just to see what is inside/ Go around stealing them, feeding them to your pride", she is referencing to this person as a heart-breaker who likes to break girls' heart only to make his ego bigger then what it seems. Jhene has also had her heart broken by this man and is tried of dealing with him saying on, "Did you ever stop and think that I might really need that/ To stay alive?/ I'm starting to believe that you don't really see that/ I had given you my life, oh yeah". The singer is starting to realize that this man is caught up in his selfish ways so much, that she sings on the hook with, "You will never know, you will never know no good (Never know a good thing)/ You will never know, no/ You will never know, you will never know no good".
Wading is a dreamy mid tempo song as Aiko speaks holding on to the man in the black suit and hopes that he will be the on for her. Jhene samples a Tupac verse on this track singing, "Picture me rolling/ Out in the open, baby, I know/ That you would notice/ You have been hoping I wouldn't go", and then she makes a play for words like "waiting" and "wading" on the hook saying, "Should I be waiting?/ Should I be waiting for you?/ Don't keep me wading/ I will turn blue".
The Pressure is an alternative R&B song with elements of hip hop music. This was inspired by the stress of Aiko finishing her debut album. On the song, she opens up with, "I care about you, baby, baby/ More than you'll ever know/ More than you'll ever know/ Please do on drive me crazy, crazy/ Unless you're gonna go with me", and then moves on to the hook where she talks about not dealing with any pressure saying, "No pressure/ No pressure, I know you're real/ The pressure/ The pressure will make you feel".
Brave talks about the danger of loving someone as Aiko sings, "Broken hearts are made for two/ One for me and one for you/ Tell me have you heard the news/ We are now in love/ So guess that I should mention/ That I am in no condition/ To put you in this position". She begins to realize that she made a mistake, but it doesn't matter to her with lyrics like, "But whatever the case, you're my favorite mistake/ More than happy to make you/ If you decide to stay, know there is no escape/ There's no one here to save you/ But you're so brave/ Stone cold crazy for loving me/ Yeah, I'm amazed/ I hope you make it out alive".
Eternal Sunshine is a piano driven song that was inspired by the film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" along with the fourth track "Spotless Mind".
Here, this is considered as a seminal part of Jhene's journey on the album. She reflects on the time of where she almost died in the L.A. Riots as a child singing, "Is it strange for me to say that if I were to die today/ There's not a thing that I would change, I've lived well", and then she goes on to think about the happy memories after trying to "erase" from her brain just like in the film saying, "All of the good things, good things/ All of the good things, good things/ Only the good, the good, the good/ Only the good, the good, the good".
Promises is a message to her daughter and brother. She talks about on the beginning of the track of wanting to be with Namiko, but her music career is making it hard for her singing, "I've been coming home late night/ I've been sleeping past daylight/ I'm waking up, you're not by my side/ Baby, that ain't right/ I wanna be there with you/ I really do be missing you/ Everything I do is for you/ And I really do adore you". Her daughter also make an appearance on the hook as the singer asks, "Just promise you'll be alright, promise you'll be alright", to which Nami responds with, "If anything (Alright, promise I'll be alright)/(Promise I'll be alright, promise I'll be alright)/ If anything should happen (Promise I'll be alright)/ (Promise I'll be alright, promise I'll be, promise I'll be alright)". The second verse of the song get very personal for Aiko as she addresses about wanting to take her life after her brother's death with, "I don't think that I can make it/ I don't think that I can make it/ But then I hear you say that/ I bet not do nothing crazy/ Cause Nami really needs you/ And I would never leave you/ Cause I am in the stars/ And everywhere you are".
Click on the link to listen to "Pretty Bird (Freestyle)" on YouTube
Pretty Bird (Freestyle) talks about Aiko's troubles that she has faced singing on the chorus with, And I said, and I said/ Pretty bird, pretty bird, pretty bird, pretty bird/ Sounds so pretty when you cry/ Pretty bird, pretty bird, pretty bird, pretty bird/ You're so pretty, but why I never see you fly?/ Pretty bird, pretty bird, I know you're hurtin'/ Well so am I, so am I". Rapper Common make an appearance as the end rapping, "I've seen the strongest of them be torn from men/ Ripped apart and get put back together/ Them the ones with the most beautiful feathers/ Let's flock together, rock together, Nirvana/ A birds persona to be free and honor".
Remember is based on a relationship that Jhene had previously been in. She tells the story how her man got another woman pregnant and fed up about it because he didn't claim the baby as his with the lyrics, "This is the saddest story that I have ever heard/ Call early in the morning when I got the word/ She says that it's his son, he says not at all/ Please miss me with the excuses/ I am not involved, no not at all". Then he tries to throw guilt on her decision to leave with, "Calm down/ You know my heart/ Can't take anymore/ Said this before", and then she wants him to remember how they got here singing, "Do you remember, do you remember you?/ Do you remember, you remember who you were?/ Do you remember who you were?/ Do you remember, you remember you?/ Do you remember, you remember who you were to me?/ Cause I do".
Blue Dream is the last song on the deluxe edition of Souled Out. Blue Dream was originally titled "My Afternoon Dream" and it was produced by Key Wane. Lyrically, it's about a strain of Cannabis sativa called "Blue Dream" as Jhene sings, "My afternoon dream when the world is sleeping/ I am still thinking of my blue dream/ It's bliss".
I love this album by Jhene Aiko. I would give it a 10/10. My favorite songs are Promises, Spotless Mind, Eternal Sunshine, Pretty Bird (Freestyle), W.A.Y.S, and Remember.
Thanks again for time. I will talk to you again tomorrow.
